Parents charged with murder in 3-month-old baby's death

By:
Alexis Stevens, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Updated: Apr 23, 2019 - 1:17 AM

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Parents charged with murder in 3-month-old baby's death

PAULDING COUNTY, Ga. - They reportedly claimed their 3-month-old was born with a heart condition when deputies were called to the family’s Paulding County, Georgia, home about a year ago. The newborn was unconscious when deputies arrived, and later died at the hospital.

But an autopsy conducted by the Georgia Bureau of Investigation found a different cause of death, according to Sgt. Ashley Henson with the Paulding Sheriff’s Office. The baby girl, whose name was not released, died from blunt force trauma to the head, the autopsy concluded.

Now the child’s parents, Tanya Atkinson, 26, and Jason Andrew Gromer, 37, have been arrested and charged with murder and aggravated battery. They were being held without bond late Monday, jail records indicated.

The investigation continued, though, concluding with the the autopsy determining the death was a homicide.

In September, Gromer created a GoFundMe page to raise money for an attorney, saying that their other children were removed from his home after the baby’s death. A photo showed a small baby in a pink sleeper.

“I am broken and my family is broken too,” Gromer wrote. “There is no police report or an autopsy. But yet they continue to hold my family in custody. I am never one to ask for help but here I am ... with a broken heart a broken family asking for help.”

Gromer last posted on the page in September. Late Monday, the page had been removed.